Priestly Blessing

I thought that with today being St. Patrick's day, and more than wearing green, shamrock shakes and beer, St. Patrick was a man who loved the Lord, and was so significant in the spritual life of Ireland, that today I’d show you a beautiful verse called the Priestly Blessing from the book of Numbers in the Bible.  The Lord told Aaron to bless the people with these words.  It’s one of my favourite passages of Scripture because of how beautiful it is to think the the Lord turns His face towards us and gives us peace.  The stamp is from ODBD Bookmarks Scripture, and I’ve added some patterned paper leaves, using an old pad of Kiwi Kiss from SU.  How I miss that vibrant green.  The dies are some a friend gave to me when she got a double set.  So kind!

I’ve added a couple of sparkly Nuvo Dots to some of the leaves and paper to give them a bit o’ dew, and curled a few of the leaves for dimension.  

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Priestly Blessing

Our Help

We're in the middle of High School open house season in our home.  Our youngest starts grade 10 next year and that means a new school for him.  It's hard to believe our baby is that old.  One of the high schools we visited last week had a horticulture department, an entire greenhouse of plants, and they handed out baby succulents to anyone who wanted one.  Isn't that interesting for a high school?  I now have a little baby sedem succulent that's so darn cute!  

Today's card makes use of Power Poppy's beautiful set Succulent Singles pairing it with ODBD Scripture Collection 3 stamp set.  I made use of Power Poppy's Succulent Singles Coordinating Dies to easily create the shapes of all the pieces I wanted to use.  This makes it so quick to turn into an arrangement that also has dimension. 

All coloured with Copics in some pretty blue-green and green combinations.  

A wee bit of sewing between the layers, a couple of sequins, and the beautiful verse make it complete! 

And here’s a picture of my baby sedem in the sunshine the other day.  I had just sprinkled some water in the soil and caught a wee little waterdrop on the right leaf.

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Our Help

Showcasing Sunflowers

Today I have a few more cards I’ve designed to send to my Sister-in-Law for her to give away.  I am always looking for good Scripture to add to the cards so that they can be used to encourage others, so today I’ve combined a set from The Cat’s Pajamas and a set from Our Daily Bread Designs.  From TCP it’s Sketchy Flowers and from ODBD it’s Scripture Collection 4.  

I love the hope and light that sunflowers represent, so I used the sunflowers from the Sketchy Flowers set a bit differently on these two designs.  On the left I used the stamps without the outlines, and on the right I used more of the outline stamps - so they both have a similar but unique feel.  

To make this design I started with a 4 1/8 x 5 1/4 inch piece of white cardstock, stamped the verse in the center with my MISTI, then step by step stamped the sunflowers around the perimeter.  I added a bit of orange to the tips of some of the flowers, and green to the leaves, and added the brown center of the sunflowers with a marker to stamp technique.  

Then I took an MFT die and cut out the scalloped rectangle center of the design to give it more of a framed feel.  I held onto that tiny frame and I’ll show you what I did to create another card with it later this week.  Instead of just 2 cards, I managed 4 from this stamping! Gotta love that!

Here’s the second design where it shows more of the orange ink I used with the outline stamp in this set to give it a bit of a different look.  Then it’s just some simple twine to finish off both cards.  

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Showcasing Sunflowers

Scripture Series V

Wowee...it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to post cards from my Scripture Series! I’ve found this to be a hectic Winter and Spring.  I think it was getting behind having pneumonia for a month, and then renos at our house, and I feel like I’ve never been able to catch up!  Maybe today some of you are feeling like that too.  

But I’m finally back today with another pair of cards showcasing Scripture that means so much to me.  

Yesterday we put on a celebration for all our Administrative Staff at Church.  Once a year we Pastors make a special lunch for all our staff that faithfully fill so many significant support roles.  

And, because I like to, and they let me, (smile), one of my jobs is to make the cards for each of them that go with a gift.  

This first design is for one of our friends who served as a ministry assistant to one of our Pastors, in just a few weeks he’s graduating from Seminary and will be looking for a new role as a full-time pastor.  We’ll miss him greatly, but also really believe in him.  So for his card I wanted to also have an encouraging theme for his next phase of life.  I love lighthouses.  This pretty set from ODBD is called Light of the World. 

I stamped the lighthouse on XPress It Blending cardstock and coloured it up with Copics.  I really wanted to get that pop of red in there so I created stripes on the lighthouse design.  I added a frame with some MFT pierced oval dies to give it a porthole feel, even though I’m pretty sure portholes are circles.  

I wrapped some baker’s twine around the frame, added some brads and kept it in that masculine feel.  

I just barely fit the sentiment on the centre fishtale section (which is also almost not a fishtale as I had to keep the cut quite shallow.  I left off the reference for space, but it’s from Matthew 5:14 - 16.  

Next up is another masculine design.  It's not one I used for our Adminstrative staff, but one I created to send to my Sister-In-Law.  

The one drawback to this card that I regret is that the polka-dots do camouflage the sentiment a little, but I do love how the overall design worked out.  Its stamped with Verves set Scripture Medley 2.   I framed the sentiment with a scalloped die, added a bracket symbol cut with my Silhouette Cameo, and accented with some brads, black velvet ribbon and a ribbon slide.  

On the close-up you can see the verse a little better.  With such a powerful verse, you really want to see the message!

Thanks for stopping by friends.  Catch up with you soon!  

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Scripture Series V

Scripture Series IV

Back for another pair of cards with Bible verses as the centerpiece.

This design uses Verve’s set Scripture Medley 2, and I think it its a verse of encouragment and challenge all rolled into one.  Faith has substance and is a future hope, and yet we don’t see it yet....so that’s the challenge!

I combined some lovely damask and dotted papers as well as accenting with MFT’s Stitched Mini Scallop Rectangle dies, Zig Zag Stitched Rectangles, and then the pretty bow is from The Cat’s Pajamas Easy Stitched Bow CutUps die.  

A few pretty pearls finish it off.  

Who doesn’t have days where fear creeps in and bullies us around?  This verse is such a good encouraging reminder of what to do.  

This next design uses a couple of sets, the verse is from Our Daily Bread Designs’ set, Scripture Series 1 and the background and accent flowers are stamped with Verve’s Dream Big (which I have on sale right now on my SALE PAGE if you’re interested).  I thougth the blossoms in the Verve set went well with these papers from Stampin’ Up from many years ago.  Including that stitched ribbon and the buttons too.  

A couple of the dies are from MFT,  Stitched Square Scalloped Frames, and Stitched Mini Scallop Circle,  and I believe the regular stitched circle die is from Simon Says Stamps. 

That’s it for today, thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you tomorrow with something HOT from Power Poppy!  

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Scripture Series IV

Scripture Series III and Narnia

Today I’ve got a few things to show you, some Scripture cards and some photography too!

First up, Psalm 46:10 from Our Daily Bread Designs Scripture Collection 3, this one happens to be one of my husband’s favourite verses because it puts a lot of life into perspective and reminds us to rest in the truth that I don’t have to have everything figured out.  

I found this great page of patterned paper with the orange poppies and pops of black that set the tone for the design.  All it needed was a bit of layering and a great big silk bow and a couple of enamel dots to complete it.  It’s a great simple layout too.  

This next design is using ODBD’s set Scripture Collection 4.  I re-did an old layout with similar colours that I had used before in 2017, it really showcases repeated colour, texture and pattern in the design, and this one uses no patterned paper.  The leaves in the background are from Verve’s set New Mercies, and then I found an embossing folder to deboss the back layer.  It looks quite similar to the stamp set.    A bit of white sharpie accents the layers so they pop a bit more, and the little corner pieces are from TCP’s CutUps Scalloped Duo Die.  

Now for some pictures....

Last week we had some funny days of weather, lots of melting for a few days, then several days in a row of heavy fog, which left us with a very Narnia-like world for the next few days after that, until the sun finally came out and melted it all away.  I snapped a few pictures because it was just so spectacular.  Everything was completely covered in a heavy, crystal-like frost.  It was like our world was sprinkled with icing sugar, or a bit like those homemade snowflakes and icicles the kids make as a science experiment out of borax.   

By the time I got around to taking pictures it was already melting away, but I thought I’d show you a few of them because it’s so pretty.  If you’re in a southern climate you wouldn’t get to enjoy this.  

It was beautiful!  Just like jewelry for our trees.

Thanks for stopping by friends!


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Scripture Series III and Narnia

Scripture Series II

Today I’m back with another pair of cards in my Scripture Series.  This particular Bible verse is our daughter’s favourite verse, and we all find it to be such an encouragement of God’s might and his tender love.  

One of the things I’ve been doing in creating these cards is going through my stash of older designer papers and pulling out combinations I like to create the cards.  Without colouring as the focal point, I find that colour combinations and pattern play a more important role in creating interest on the card.  Plus, it helps me work through my mountain of older papers as well.  I thought this pretty white, red and green combo was fresh and perfect for this design.  

I started with Our Daily Bread Designs Scripture Series 1 set, stamping in Wild Wasabi green ink and added some sewing to frame the image, a pretty heart (TCP’s Nested Hearts CutUps), finishing it off with a bit of Baker’s Twine.  

Next up is a verse from Verve Stamps that is also such an encouragement.  Because it talks about the Lord lifting our heads I wanted to use some bright sunny colours.  This set is now in the Verve Scripture Medley 2 set, but it used to be just a Plain Jane stamp set.  

I used a fun layout, and then embellished with some butterflies from TCP’s Butterflies CutUps, popped them up and added some enamel dots to accent.  

I hope these are an encouragement to you today as well!  

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Scripture Series II

Scripture Series I

Hello Friends,

My sister-in-law had a birthday recently and one of the things I like to do for her every now and then is to send some cards with Scripture on them.  She loves to give them to people in her life.  As I was making a dozen or so cards for her,  I thought I’d then show them to you over a few week's time.  Maybe it will turn into a bit longer series, as I’ll create more that I can then use too.

I find this to be a really good creative challenge, since most of my cardmaking has colouring as the center piece of what I do.  In all of these designs the sentiment, or Bible verse will be the centerpiece of the card, so its much more about layout, patterned paper and overall design that the colouring.  Most of the designs will have a clean and simple style as well.  So, I hope you’ll enjoy this over the next weeks, along with my regular style of colouring images for my cards.

As I looked through my stamps I realized that I have a lot of great Bible verses to use, so it’s really delightful to choose meaningful ones for these cards.  This first design uses an Our Daily Bread Designs set, Scripture Series 1.  I embossed the Bible verse from Psalm 73 onto watercolour paper and added in a wash of purples with my water brush.  Next, I framed it up with an MFT scalloped rectangle die, flipping the outside of the frame from the inner rectangle 180 degrees.  This adds some variety from the inside watercolouring to the outside frame.  

I added some pretty posies from a Verve set, Poppy Birthday, using several different purple inks between the layers.  On the background I used an embossing folder for the designer paper and sanded the paper a bit so that the white would show through.  Some scallops along the top and a bit of lace finishes the bottom edge off.  For a girl who doesn’t usually reach for purple first, I really like how it turned out.  And, a powerful promise of encouragement too.  

Next up is a design with a little more masculine style.  I used Our Daily Bread Designs set, Light of the World for this one.  On the cream patterned paper, I stamped the lighthouse image in Memento Summer Sky in the background and the Bible verse in the forground in Memento Olive Grove.  I created a little “port-hole” out of stitched circle dies, and then added more patterned paper and tied it all together with a double sailor’s knot and some buttons.  

So, there you have week one!  I’ll be back tomorrow with some Power Poppy colouring for you!  Thanks for dropping by!  

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Scripture Series I

Birthday Bloom Beauties

Awhile ago I mentioned on the blog that I found some images I had coloured up a long time ago that I had forgotten about.  (oops)  Today I put another one of those images into a sweet little birthday design.  This is with Our Daily Bread Designs’ Grow in Grace set.  I’m pretty sure it’s retired because I couldn’t find it anywhere on their site.  I think the blooms are really pretty and unique.  Way back when I coloured it up, I had written on the side in pencil that I thought it would go with some MME papers called Cambridge Court.  Luckily, all these months later I still had some of those papers, and then I put a vellum banner in the design with some sewing to hold it all together.  

Added a little birthday sentiment, and some twine and it’s another card for the birthday stash!

Happy Monday everyone.  

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Birthday Bloom Beauties

Tips with Intricate Dies

Just wanted to let you know that I have a post today on the CardMaker Blog with some tips on how to use intricate dies that are so popular in card making right now;  as well as some tools that I find work great.  Hope you can pop on over and find out more!

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Tips with Intricate Dies

Come Follow Me

Hello Everyone and Happy Wednesday.  No snow here yet :)  Sorry to the many of you who are digging out in the US!   See who says Canada is all cold?

On Sunday our friend and colleague had his Ordination Service at Church.  And today as a staff we'll be celebrating with a lunch, since I didn't have time to make a card for Sunday, I made one to give him today.

I pulled out one of my Our Daily Bread Designs Sets - Fishers of Men, which was perfect for the occasion.  I also used today's SCS Sketch Challenge.  

I've colored up the fishing basket and fishing gear with Prismacolor Pencils and OMS in these neutral and bluey-green colors, pairing the image with Kaisers Hunt and Gather paper.  

Also, I added a grid design on the main card layer with my Scor Buddy and then stamped in a fish and a lure into the squares. 

and then here's the inside:

So, I'm off to the lunch!  Thanks for dropping by!  Catch you soon!  (pun intended! :) 

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Come Follow Me

ODBDSLC21 - I Sought the Lord

This will be a long post people....just so you know, lots of important stuff inside, creative and personal :) 

As this post goes live I am on a plane with my husband, our children and a number of our high school students and leaders (21 of us) on a Mission Trip.  I'm beside myself about it!   I thought about not saying anything but I thought maybe you'd like to know too.  We'll be working with two Churches doing a Vacation Bible School at one, and then a Sports Camp and construction at the other church.  My husband has done this trip with the HS'ers twice before, but this is the first time for me and the kids to go with the team.  My husband LOVES these people and they love him and the Pastor and his family told him that they next time he comes that he needed to bring us with him - or he couldn't come back :) 

But, this wasn't an easy decision for me.  It's a lot of time extending myself out with a lot of people 24 -7 and especially with our children with us there too, and I was very anxious about it.  Though I have a very extroverted job in ministry, I am in reality still an introvert and need down time to recharge....so all this was a big leap of faith and a big stretch for me. So, I promised my husband that I would pray about it.  I didn't get an answer for a long time, and then one day several months ago I just felt the Lord say "you can go", and I felt a deep peace about us going too.  His assurance washed over me and has left me a real sense of rest about the decision.  So....now we're on a plane.  You're prayers for doing our work well, and safety and effective ministry there are welcome!  It's so important to me to have our not only our HS'ers but our own children experience and love another culture, another economic situation, to see God at work in another place...and for them to be a part of it too.  Our heart is to be His workmanship and make a difference and do what God has prepared in advance for us to do.  (Ephesians 2:10)

So, this card for the ODBDSLC21 challenge (which is all about coloring) is kind of dedicated to what this Mission Trip is about for me, which I'll explain in a minute. 

Today is my last day on the Challenge Team with the lovely people of ODBD.  It's been just over 6 months and I've so appreciated serving with them.  They are wonderful women who's heart is to use their creativity to create and shine Light into the world.  Thank you so much Kelley and the ODBD team for your generous hearts and hearts for following Jesus.  It's been a pleasure working with you! 

I think this is still one of my favourite ODBD sets, Sing to the Lord, and I've given it color with Copic Markers (Y17, Y19, Y35, Y38, BH11, BG13, G12, G21, G24, Y3, W7), and popped the top blooms up with dimensionals.  I tipped the nestie shape slightly, framing it in the background with the Lotus shape Die. 

I love the accenting on the bottom with the folded papers (My Minds Eye), the Rings Border Punch from Martha Stewart and the Satin Ribbon. 

And I don't often decorate the inside of my cards, but I could not resist this one, it's from the Scripture Collections set and the verse really defines for me what the next days are all about. 

So...I'll be absent here on the blog for a little bit...I'll see you again toward the end of the month, with lots of news about all we've seen and done.  Thanks for your visit and your prayers!

Now head on over to these girls to see what beauties they've colored up for you...Chrissy, Chris, Francie, Patter and Sabrina.

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ODBDSLC21 - I Sought the Lord

Gettin' Sketchy

How's your weekend going?  How about a fun sketch for this week's ODBD Challenge?  Sounds great doesn't it?

I'm really INTO sketches lately, it's just so nice to have someone do the layout work for you, especially in summer when I have limited time for crafting. 

I've been looking longingly at this pretty designer paper from 7 Gypsies called Savannah for a while now, and today seemed like the perfect challenge for it.  I chose some pretty Prism paper to match (Sage Medium) and some SU So Saffron.  I stamped the birds nest from the Nest Set, with Crushed Curry so it would stand out a little more, and then overstamped the verse from Scripture Collection 4 with Forest Moss Distress Ink, and then used the nestie as a template sponged Tea Dye Distress ink overtop, and on the outside of the designer paper. 

I love that I was able to create a frame with the nesties, accenting it with the Floral Accent Nesties shapes, some pearls and this gorgeous old SU ribbon.  The vertical stripes are made with my Martha Stewart Rings edge punch, double punching the row in the middle, and single punching for the outer stripes. 

I love this verse and need it's reminding often.  This makes me think too of the verse reminding us that he watches the birds of the air too (thus the nest) and that my cares are cared for by Him and I need to bring him my honest self.  It's so good to know I'm not in this alone. 

Head on over to the Challenge Team girls to see what they've done with the sketch this week, and then join us and you could win some ODBD Prizes!  http://www.ourdailybreaddesignsblog.blogspot.com/

Chris Dickinson, Chris Olsen, Francie Gumprecht, Sabrina Jackson, and Patter Cross

Have a great Saturday! 

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Gettin' Sketchy

My Bible Bookmark

Welcome to our Shining the Light Challenge with Our Daily Bread Designs this week.  Today's challenge is one I actually made for ME, moi, myself :)  A bookmark! 

I often make bookmarks for other people, in fact I made one for my Dad for Father's Day last week, I'll show it to you this next week.  But today, I made this for me.  My Bible does have a page ribbon, but usually I've stuffed other things in there to mark other pages, and now I'll have something pretty to put in instead.

I've used the very pretty Grow in Grace set, because to me, it's my heart to grow in understanding His grace for me this year.  I've used some of my favourite colors to combine, rich olives and peaches - using Webster's Pages and I cut out a window for the flowers from this set using my nestability template.  Lots of pretty ribbons and beads and a charm.  I don't know why, but I took lots of pictures of this one, I must like it :)

Coloring is done with Copics (R01, R11, R12, R14 and YG91 YG93, YG95, and some shading with W2)

Yummy Ribbons, Crochet Lace, Silk and Satin Finish as well as twine and beads. 

And then some ruffles along the bottom.  Very feminine but not too fussy or bulky to put in the pages of my Bible.  Plus now I'll never miss where my Bible is.  When I do announcements and prayer up front in Church on Sundays I'm notorius for grabbing our Senior Pastor's Bible from the pulpit after prayer rather than mine (they do look a lot alike)....then he starts preaching and instead of his Bible up there - it's mine.  It's happened like 3 times at least!  So embarrasing.  He looks at me and says "Christine I think you have my Bible"  I have to get up in front of everyone and trade him, thankfully our congregation is able to laugh WITH me not at me :)    See why I need so much grace? 

This Sunday my husband and I are preaching in the three services.  All of us on staff take turns throughout the year at least twice so our Senior Pastor gets a break.  We'll be preaching on Leaving a Legacy of Faith.  So, I'm off for now....see you next week!

Be sure to check out the other pretty bookmarks with the ODBD Challenge Team and join us in making one too.  This challenge will last for 2 weeks and you can win ODBD prizes! 

Chris,  Sabrina, Francie, and Patter

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My Bible Bookmark

My Soul Finds Rest

How about some F.L.O.W.E.R.S. for the Our Daily Bread Challenge today?  Today you get to choose from a recipe - and you must use any 3 items for your creation...

F - flower stamps, L - lace, O - ODBD Stamps or ovals or O shaped embellishments, W - Watercoloring, E - Embossing (dry or heat set), R - Ribbon and S - Stitching - faux or machine. 

Crazy me, I chose to do all of them!

F - Flowers - These lovely Fushias from the From Me to You set

L - Lace along the bottom of the card

O - ODBD stamps and pearls

W - watercoloring - which I've used to color the image

E - Embossing - gold Ranger Embossing

R - Ribbon - silk tied with the Bow Easy

S - Stitching - I did some machine zig zagging around the card.

Above you can see the coloring and embossing a little bit better.  Once I used the Labels 8 nesties to cut out the image I used the nestie template to sponge inside of the image to soften the look, so it had more of an impressionistic feel, and really give it a nice match to the designer papers (Memory Box Spearmint). 

The sentiment is from the beautiful Scripture Collection 4 Set, which I stamped in Mellow Moss ink.  Such an encouraging Scripture to me.  There's no where else I can truly find rest but in God, and that He is the source of stability and strength.  I need to be reminded of this often. 

So, join us in this F.L.O.W.E.R.S Recipe Challenge this week.  For more deets see the ODBD Blog

And see these fab girls for their inspiration:  Chris, Natalie, Patter, Sabrina and Angella is joining us this week!

Recipe:  Stamps:  Our Daily Bread Designs - Scripture Collection 4, From Me to You;  Ink:  VersaMark, Mellow Moss, Sage Shadow (sponging);  Paper:  Mellow Moss, Vanilla, Memory Box Spearmint DSP, Watercolor Paper;  Accessories:  Big Shot, Labels 8 Nestabilities, Ranger Gold Embossing Powder, Waterbased markers, Sponge, Silk Ribbon, Bow Easy, Kaiser Pearls, Wavy Dotted Border Punch, Lace, Sewing Machine, Dimensionals.

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My Soul Finds Rest